They say a picture tells a thousand stories – but this one should remind Cambridge United fans more of 31 hard luck tales.

It shows Kevin Keegan in full flow for Newcastle United at the Abbey Stadium on April 28, 1984 – one of the last games the former England captain played in professional football before retiring.

But the game was more significant to Cambridge fans for the fact that it was the day their side finally ended their record-breaking run of 31 games without a win.

For seven long months, U's fans had watched their team toil in Division Two (now the Championship) without tasting victory, following a 2-1 victory over Oldham on October 1, 1983.

Strange then that it was against a Newcastle team on their way to promotion back to the top flight that Cambridge finally rediscovered how to win.

Stranger still that the U's winner was scored from the penalty spot by Kevin Smith, a striker born in the Newcastle suburb of Wallsend, but who had been an apprentice at Cambridge.

Winner: Kevin Smith

The celebrations were hollow – Cambridge were pretty much already relegated by then – but there was certainly a sense of relief.

So says former U's keeper Dean Greygoose, the fourth keeper Cambridge had used that season, having come through the ranks at the Abbey Stadium.

“The trouble was, we had too many kids in that team,” said Greygoose, who went on to make around 250 Football League appearances, and many more in non-league.

“We had some talented kids coming through our youth system, but too many of them were thrown in at once. It was mentally tough, and a lot of them drifted out of the game.

"A lot of them just never got over it. For me, it took about a year to get over it and get my confidence back once I had left Cambridge.

“There were a couple of close results and a couple of real hammering. I remember going to Huddersfield and losing 3-0, but I had about 30 shots to save – it was ridiculous.

Looking back: Dean Greygoose is now manager at Mildenhall Town

“We then came up against a Newcastle team not only with Keegan, but with Chris Waddle and Peter Beardlsey in their forward line, and nobody gave us a prayer.

“It was my first win in professional football though, and we did have a good few drinks to celebrate, but the feeling was relief more than anything.

“It didn't last long though – we only got one more win and were relegated, and we started the next season badly too. It was just a team very low on confidence.”

In fact, Cambridge went another 23 games without winning the following season, between Boxing Day 1984 and the penultimate game of the campaign, and suffered a second successive relegation after finishing bottom.

A third nightmare campaign in a row followed, with a winless run of 10 games (including seven straight losses) after an opening day win over Hartlepool, and the U's finished third from bottom of the whole Football League.

However, that summer, they signed a midfielder from Bournemouth called John Beck, who would eventually become the man to lead them back to the second tier – but that's another story.